Don George on Leaving Lonely Planet and the Future of Travel

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.08.07 | 3:20 PM ET

Last week, Don George announced he was leaving Lonely Planet after six years as the company’s global travel editor. George is a giant in the travel writing world. Before arriving at LP, he spent years as the travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. He then created Salon.com’s travel section, Wanderlust. And during his years at Lonely Planet, he co-wrote a terrific book on travel writing and edited highly regarded literary travel anthologies. (Full disclosure: The most recent book includes one of my stories.) I dialed up George today, his first official day off, to ask about leaving Lonely Planet, his future and the future of travel.

Why the decision to leave Lonely Planet?

For five and a half years at LP I had a job that perfectly suited my experience and passions. I was writing a weekly online column, acting as the company’s primary spokesperson in North America, editing one literary anthology a year, and serving as a kind of in-house consultant with the publishing, marketing and business teams on a wide variety of different projects. Then half a year ago my job morphed into a role that was much more closely tied to directly generating revenues through specific projects. I felt that the new role wasn’t engaging my core passions and talents as the old role had, and so this seemed a good time to set myself soaring.

It was sad to leave the people at LP because the people are really wonderful, but it’s exhilarating to contemplate a wide open future.

So what’s next?

I’m going to do a lot of online and print editing and writing, and consulting. I’m still thinking about writing books and editing books. I would like to continue doing anthologies. I love those anthologies I’ve done. I want to focus more on my own writing. I have some things already lined up and am also just exploring the possibilities.

You’ve also mentioned the possibility of broadcasting, haven’t you?

Yes. I’ve loved the radio and TV interviews and shows that I’ve done and I want to look into the possibility of some sort of ongoing radio or TV work. They’re media that I think are underutilized when it comes to travel, in terms of getting inside a destination and a conversation. I’d love to explore ways that TV and radio could evoke the travel experience more completely.

You’ve been observing travel – how we travel, where we travel – for decades. How do you see travel changing?

I think that people are pushing the boundaries more and more. As more people travel more, they gain more confidence. They explore a little farther and go a little deeper. That’s a great thing. Generally, people are more educated and respectful travelers now than they were 20 or 30 years ago. I’m hopeful that they are. But I think the travel equation is getting very complicated. When you think about the effects of airplane pollution, for example, it becomes a more complicated equation—the good you do as a traveler and the harm you do. I do believe deeply that travel is essential to the future of the planet and the more we meet people in different cultures and we share our world with their world and vice versa, the more we grow peace and understanding. Though it’s a much more complicated situation now for the traveler in terms of our awareness of our impacts, I’m still incredibly optimistic about travel. It’s critically important to our future.

Do you see travel stories changing much?

I think great travel stories still get inside a place and culture and illuminate those places and cultures in a way that people who haven’t experienced them can appreciate and understand. I think great travel writing is all about building bridges of connection and understanding. You build the bridges outside, in the world, and inside yourself, too. To me, that’s still so much at the heart of the travel experience, building those bridges in both directions.

Thanks, Don.

Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Don George: The Art of Travel Writing

Photo courtesy of Don George.

Tags: Life of a Travel Writer